Sterling Ink is a brand I spotted on Instagram, thanks to the algorithms working as intended! I saw several posts mentioning their planners, and when I saw that they had a nice range of notebooks too, I couldn’t resist giving them a try.

I bought two Sterling Ink notebooks in my favorite 3.5 x 5.5″ size, both in the caramel color. That and mauve were the only options currently available, though from their photos, it looks like there was a black option at some point. They come packaged in a clear plastic envelope. The soft covers are a textured faux leather, totally plain except for the brand name stamped in gold on the back.

Inside the Sterling Ink notebooks, everything is completely plain. I chose the version with numbered grid paper, which is very pleasing to the eye– sharp, precise, minimal. The grid lines are dashed, spaced at 3.9mm, 20 squares by 33 squares with a plain border around the edges. The numbering starts on the second gridded page, and goes up to 269, as the 272 total page count includes blank ed pages. I would have started the numbers on the first grid page, but I guess this is done the way books are usually paginated, with even numbers on the left and odd numbers on the right. (I can’t believe I’ve worked in publishing for decades and never really noticed that.) Not a big deal either way. I love the font they used for the numbers, and the way there is a heavier dot at the top and bottom edge of the grid marking the middle. Everything seems very carefully considered.

The way the Sterling Ink notebook is constructed is also very nice– sewn signatures, which make it open flat and feel very flexible. The rounding on the corners is done to a very small diameter– a tiny detail that I always love, as it looks so much nicer than a big wide rounding,

The 272 page notebook has plain white page edges, but the other one I bought is a 520 page version with gold page edges, which dress it up nicely. In every other way, the thicker notebook is exactly the same.

The paper used is Tomoe River paper, 52 GSM. It is dreamy to write on– so smooth and luscious. Fountain pens don’t bleed, though the fineness of the paper does allow more show-through than some other papers. The bright white paper shows off ink colors beautifully. I hated to desecrate this lovely test page with the nasty Super Sharpie, but I had to see if it would bleed through, since it pretty much bleeds through everything.

I really love these notebooks. The 520-page one is especially cute with its chunky shape. It’s the exact shape I wished for when I first tried the Hobonichi Techo, which was a bit oversize for me in its A6 form. The design somewhat reminds me of Hobonichi, as well as Stalogy— clean, minimal, sharp. (Sterling Ink’s planners also look great, with the same design sense and some nice layouts for tracking goals and habits.) It is wonderful to see such amazing attention to detail in a notebook– everything about these feels good, looks good, and seems incredibly precise. Great quality control.

Of course, great quality doesn’t come cheap: these are $22 for for the 272 page version and $30 for the 520 page version. I think these prices are fair compared to other fountain pen friendly, Tomoe River paper notebooks I’ve seen elsewhere. If you compare it to the Dressco Notebook I recently reviewed, (which is not Tomoe River paper but is at the same level of quality in many ways), the Dressco is more expensive at $0.11 per page vs. $0.06-$0.08 per page for the Sterling Ink notebooks. Galen Leather sells a 400 page B6 size Tomoe River notebook for $25, which works out to less per page than Sterling Ink’s 260 page B6 notebook at $21, but I haven’t tried anything from Galen Leather so can’t compare their quality.

I’ll be checking back to see if the black versions of these ever come back into stock, or whether they offer any other colors. The caramel is perfectly nice, but I can’t help it that I’m a boring person who mostly just keeps buying black notebooks over and over again! For others who have different preferences, Sterling Ink offers a variety of sizes and colors and page layouts for various planners and notebooks. Check them out at their online store.